Montreal Gazette » Shakespearehttp://montrealgazette.com
Tue, 31 Mar 2015 22:06:44 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/http://0.gravatar.com/blavatar/ab6c5a9287c37a4f2ebe4dac7a314814?s=96&d=http%3A%2F%2Fs2.wp.com%2Fi%2Fbuttonw-com.png » Shakespearehttp://montrealgazette.com
Hudson Village Theatre reaching out to a wider audience this summerhttp://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/local-arts/hudson-village-theatre-reaching-out-to-a-wider-audience-this-summer
http://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/local-arts/hudson-village-theatre-reaching-out-to-a-wider-audience-this-summer#commentsTue, 17 Feb 2015 20:41:59 +0000http://montrealgazette.com/?p=480146]]>When Hudson Village Theatre’s new artistic director, Matthew Tiffin, took over the reins last September, he promised to raise the game of this charming little theatre located in a refurbished train station just 40 minutes from downtown Montreal.

Judging from the upcoming summer season announced this week, made up mainly of road-tested shows, he’s well on his way to living up to his promise.

Notably, he’s bringing in Martha Burns, a noted Toronto actor, veteran of the Shaw and Stratford Festivals and a lead performer in the CTV television series Slings and Arrows, to star in the Tennessee Williams classic The Glass Menagerie. It will run July 8 to 26.

Each play Tiffin has chosen will probably appeal to a slightly different demographic, he said during an interview following an audition he held for National Theatre School students this week. He will be directing The Glass Menagerie himself and is currently lining up local actors to complete the cast.

“We’re trying to reach a wider, more diverse audience,” he said.

At the same time, he will strive to keep the already enthusiastically committed locals in their pews.

The 2015 season begins on June 16 with a quirky, participatory theatre comedy, Blind Date by Rebecca Northern, starring Christy Bruce. She plays a Parisian woman named Mimi who has been stood up by her blind date. To cut her losses, she ventures into the audience and picks another date (hopefully, a willing volunteer). The 90-minute improvisational comedy proceeds from there.

Each performance will be unique, but Blind Date, created in 2007, always works, Tiffin said. It has already won acclaim in London’s West End, as well as New York, Toronto and Calgary.

The August production, running Aug. 12 to 30, is a rollicking Canadian musical by Grant Tilly called Bingo Ladies, the Musical. It bears some passing resemblance to the recently launched Belles Soeurs musical, based on Michel Tremblay’s play Les Belles Soeurs.

In Bingo Ladies, one woman, a septuagenarian of ill health attached to an oxygen tank, wins one too many bingo games at the local hall. Then, as Tiffin puts it, “the two other ladies decide to take care of business. Stuff goes down in the bingo hall.”

The musical includes four characters and 16 songs.

“They’re the kind of songs you go home humming,” he added. “It’s very funny.”

A previously staged production of Bingo Ladies, from Port Stanley Theatre in Ontario, will be playing at Hudson Village Theatre minus one of its original players, actor Lisa Horner, who stole the show in Montreal’s Belles Soeurs. Unfortunately, she has another booking.

The final production of the four-play season (Sept. 16 to 20) is Jake’s Gift, a widely lauded Canadian play by Julia Mackey. It chronicles the friendship that develops between a World War Two veteran who makes a trip to Normandy to find the grave of his brother who was killed during the war and a 10-year-old girl who looks after the monuments in the graveyard.

Since 2007, this show, produced by Juno Productions, has toured to almost 200 communities across Canada, winning awards and rave reviews along the way.

“It’s hands-down one of the most touching, funny and heartbreaking plays I’ve ever seen,” he said.

Tiffin, 41, formerly known as Madd Harold during his years with Gravy Bath Productions in Montreal, served as artistic director of Ship’s Company Theatre in Parrsboro, N.S., for four years, but is currently based in Toronto. He commutes to work in Hudson. He said the Hudson Village Theatre board of directors has been very supportive. “They’re very excited to get things going for this year. It feels like a new beginning, a fresh start.”

To purchase tickets at reduced rates or Flex Passes for the 2015 Hudson Village Theatre summer season, call 450-458-5361 or visitwww.villagetheatre.ca.

****

Meanwhile, during chilly February in Montreal, the hottest ticket is Robert Lepage’s Jeux de cartes: Coeur, which opens Wednesday at Tohu. Following hard upon the heels of its companion piece, Jeux de cartes: Pique, which just completed its second run at the same theatre, this episodic tale follows five generations, time-travelling between colonial Algeria to 1960s Europe and contemporary Quebec.

Like all Lepage works, Coeur is visually arresting and technically innovative, and moves swiftly between locales in a cinematic fashion. One of its key features, besides the revolving circular theatre stage that keeps the actors below deck for the duration, is a see-through curtain that envelopes the stage, serving as a screen for vintage film footage.

When it made its North American première at Tohu last year, Coeur was still a work in progress, while Pique, which had already toured for some time, was running smoothly. This time around, Coeur, which begins with card tricks performed by a magician in 19th century France, should be fine-tuned and ready for rigorous scrutiny. It’s performed in Arabic and Italian as well as French and English.

Numerous books, most of them unsolicited, cross my desk at the Montreal Gazette. Publishers send them in hopes they will be reviewed and, thereby, reach a broader audience of potential buyers. Inevitably, because of the volume of books and the limited space available for reviews, titles often slip through the cracks. Having written about children’s lit for decades now, I generally know what to look for — what will stand out from the pack and probably deliver a good read. I look for authors whose work I know, books that have achieved a buzz in the media, and — that adage about judging a book notwithstanding — covers and illustrations that catch my eye.

But sometimes a book sets itself apart for a totally different reason. Which is where Kevin Sylvester comes in. He created a sketch that served as something of a calling card for Neil Flambé, his 15-year-old red-headed chef, central character in a series that now numbers five volumes. There it was, tucked into an advance reading copy of Neil Flambé and the Bard’s Banquet: an original pen-and-ink sketch of the youthful chef, chowing down on a pile of bagels while reading a copy of The Gazette (before its redesign eliminated the gothic masthead), with Mount Royal and the cross visible through a window behind him.

It’s hard not to notice a book that comes with such a calling card. Even if you’ve already reviewed a volume in the series (Neil Flambé and the Crusader’s Curse, in 2012) and try not to repeat the performance.

This time around, Neil and his cousin, Larry, get embroiled in an adventure that takes them to London for a command performance at the Queen’s behest. (It’s best to suspend disbelief when it comes to the segments involving her majesty; she gets in touch with Neil by cellphone and the dialogue is irreverent, to say the least — although all in “Good fun,” as the brief blurb by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay announces on the covers of all the Neil Flambé capers.)

Cover illustration, in part, by Kevin Sylvester for Neil Flambé and the Bard’s Banquet.

History tends to be entwined with mystery in these books. Here, it’s the pursuit of a jewel dating back to Elizabethan times — something Will Kemp hid from his former friend, William Shakespeare, and which a pair of thugs in cahoots with a shady lord are determined to steal, should Neil and Larry find it.

Readers will learn not only about Shakespeare’s plays and now-famous theatres like the Globe, but also about the perils of life in the 1600s — including such horrors as the bubonic plague, which sometimes saw people being locked into their homes and left to die rather than letting them risk infecting others, and the Great Fire of London.

Those with an ear for Shakespearean dialogue will enjoy working out the clues as Neil and his friends track down the elusive jewel. I had a bit of trouble keeping it all straight, but even if your brain isn’t geared to deductive reasoning, there’s plenty of fun to be had in following the young chef and his powerful nose through London streets as he sniffs out clues.

Ages 8 to 12

Neil Flambé and the Bard’s Banquet

By Kevin Sylvester

Simon & Schuster, 313 pages, $14.99

]]>http://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/books-for-kids-neil-flambe-and-the-bards-banquet/feed0011915-Neil_Flambe.jpg-0124_books_goedhart-W.jpgbgoedhartCover illustration, in part, by Kevin Sylvester for Neil Flambé and the Bard's Banquet.Gilda Radner remembered in one-woman play; No One Like Hugh keeps Shakespeare buffs guessinghttp://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/local-arts/two-plays-for-gilda-radner-radner-fans-and-shakespeare-buffs
http://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/local-arts/two-plays-for-gilda-radner-radner-fans-and-shakespeare-buffs#commentsFri, 28 Nov 2014 16:00:46 +0000http://montrealgazette.com/?p=404865]]>It’s hard to be funny. Much harder when you’re fighting cancer.

But Saturday Night Live pioneer Gilda Radner, who died in 1989 of ovarian cancer, never lost her sense of humour or her concern for others.

In addition to her films and comedy show reruns, Radner’s legacy includes It’s Always Something, a book written while she was in remission. The Gilda Radner Ovarian Detection Centre at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Beverly Hills was established by her husband, Gene Wilder, after her death. He also helped to launch Gilda’s Clubs, now known as Cancer Support Community groups.

Now Radner is being remembered in a one-woman show called Bunny, Bunny: Gilda Radner — A Sort of Love Story, playing at the Segal Centre Studio.

Having prepped by watching video clips of Radner’s comedy routines, I was slightly let down by this new show starring Rosaruby Kagan.

This wasn’t Kagan’s fault. My expectations had to be adjusted to the nature of the piece, which is an adaptation of a 1994 memoir of similar title, written by Alan Zweibel.

A comedy writer and longtime friend of Radner, Zweibel wrapped his memories of her into a book that included 65 vignettes and illustrations.

Kagan is a versatile, energetic performer. Under the direction of Tanner Harvey, she incarnates, by turn, both Zweibel and Radner. Wearing a man’s suit jacket, white shirt and tie over a pair of jeans, she moves back and forth on a sparsely furnished set (designed by Jody Burkholder) with the audience seated on two sides. Zweibel’s story of a workplace friendship and almost romance that lasted 14 years is a touching, original one.

Because Zweibel writes comedy for a living (he created Radner’s famous Roseanne Roseanneadanna), there are many funny quips, effectively delivered by Kagan. What’s missing are trademark Radner laugh lines written by others. Which, of course, would require a separate acquisition of copyright.

Alex Lepanto (left) as Friar Hubert and Jonah Carson as Good Hugh in No One Like Hugh.

No need to worry about copyright when it comes to the Bard. Shakespeare’s works can be rewritten, deconstructed or mangled without charge.

At MainLine Theatre, where we’ve already seen one Shakespearean romp this season (Bard Fiction, based on the movie Pulp Fiction), another exercise in writing faux Shakespearean is playing to the groundlings.

No One Like Hugh lacks the narrative backbone of a familiar film script. And rather than take on a single play, it hints at many, aiming the brunt of its ridicule at a Shakespearean device: mistaken identity gambits involving identical twins who don’t even vaguely resemble each other.

Although Shakespeare played the twin card in Comedy of Errors and Twelfth Night, No One Like Hugh borrows lines and characters from multiple works, creating a diverting guessing game for Shakespeare buffs.

My favourite characters were the subversive puppet jester animated by Morgan Nerenberg and the three Macbeth-inspired witches.

The paper-thin plot revolves around two long-lost brothers named Hugh, one of them randy (Jonah Carson), the other evil (Justin Johnson), who both become engaged to Princess Lavender (Stevie Pemberton), daughter of the senile King Konstantinos Archontakis (Raphaël Grosz-Harvey).

The sexual innuendo is thoroughly modern — and relentless. Friar Hubert (Alex Lepanto) is gay and in love with a knight. Lactactia Steelonbottom (Stephanie Costa), maid and confidante of Princess Lavender, is a lesbian who leads a double life. The valet Hugo (Lucas DiTecco) has Bob Dylan flair.

No One Like Hugh meanders, but gains ground in the second act that includes a slapstick sword fight.

We’ll hear more from this zany gang of recent Dawson College grads who call themselves Playwright Hero when they remount their fringe festival hit, Johnny Legdick: A Rock Opera, at Centaur Theatre’s Wildside Festival in January.

No One Like Hugh, by Jimmy Karamanis, Travis Martin and Alex Smith, continues at MainLine Theatre, 3997 St. Laurent Blvd. Ends Saturday. Tickets $15, students $12. Call or visitwww.mainlinetheatre.ca

]]>http://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/local-arts/two-plays-for-gilda-radner-radner-fans-and-shakespeare-buffs/feed0112714-1115_col_brownstein002A.JPG-1129_hugh-W.jpgpdonnellAlex Lepanto (left) as Friar Hubert and Jonah Carson as Good Hugh in Japanese Cape Nostalgia at FFM Warms the Hearthttp://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/theatre/japanese-cape-nostalgia-at-ffm-warms-the-heart
http://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/theatre/japanese-cape-nostalgia-at-ffm-warms-the-heart#commentsSun, 31 Aug 2014 21:38:52 +0000http://blogs.montrealgazette.com/?p=254754]]>Coming out of Cinema Imperial after viewing the Japanese film Cape Nostalgia the other night I was struck by the thought that if it were not for theFestival des films du nouveau monde I would never have seen this beautiful, touching piece of work directed by Sayuri Yoshinaga.

Based on the novel The Teahouse of the Rainbow Cape by Akio Morisawa, it focuses on a widow named Etsuko who runs a small cafe in an isolated seaside village serving up wisdom and sympathy along with her specially brewed coffee. Her husband has been dead for many years and Koji, the nephew she has raised, is a lovable deadbeat who hovers nearby causing trouble on a regular basis.

Yoshinaga, a highly respected star of Japanese cinema, plays the female lead in her own film – which marks her directorial debut. Koji is played by another noted actor, Hiroshi Abe, who has a strong Shakespearean background and is currently preparing to play Brutus in a Japanese production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.

As Etsuko prepares her coffee, she utters the incantation: “goodness arise” while making a small gesture with her hand. And, in a sense, this is a film about goodness, as personified by this woman who appears stronger than she really is. It’s also a fond, sunny portrait (of the Norman Rockwell kind) of a village whose inhabitants look after each other in times of trouble. They may be mischievous but never evil. They accept their limited options, resist change and value enduring friendships. (There’s a resemblance to that Quebec classic, La grande séduction.)

Etsuko’s perennial suitor, Tani (Tsurube Shofukutei) makes a valiant attempt at proposing marriage that involves cooking a fish that he pretends to have caught himself. This makes for delicately restrained courtship scene that’s both sweet and hilarious. The performances are all nicely understated and thanks to fine camera work, the haunting landscape beckons. (I did find the film a bit slow, with a dash more schmaltz than necessary at times. But that’s a quibble.)

Cape Nostalgia not only made me cry, it set off a wave of nostalgia for the first FFM movie that made me cry, so many years ago: Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears, back in 1980 (or thereabouts). That’s when I was first convinced of the value of international festivals like the FFM. Those who articulate best that which means the most to us (in books, theatre, dance, music or film) may live far away, within other cultures, speaking other languages, unnoticed by North America. Connecting with their work can enrich our lives immeasurably. Which is why the FFM must live on, with or without its current leadership. It would be unfortunate if the next Cape Nostalgia passed us by.

Because Cape Nostalgia has proved popular at the FFM, it has been held over. It will screen again tomorrow (Sept. 1, 2014) at 10:30 a.m. at the Quartier Latin Cinema.

]]>http://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/theatre/japanese-cape-nostalgia-at-ffm-warms-the-heart/feed0pdonnellHarry the King Defeated by Rain on Opening Nighthttp://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/theatre/harry-the-king-defeated-by-rain-on-opening-night
http://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/theatre/harry-the-king-defeated-by-rain-on-opening-night#commentsWed, 09 Jul 2014 20:10:53 +0000http://blogs.montrealgazette.com/?p=252078]]>It was a poignant sight. The valiant but sodden Henry V of Repercussion Theatre’sHarry the King making his way off the stage in Westmount Park before getting a chance to lead his troups into the Battle of Agincourt.

It was simply no longer safe for the actors on the stage flooded by a downpour that had been predicted much earlier in the day. As for the spectators (myself included), many clung to their umbrellas until Repercussion Theatre artistic director Paul Hopkins finally decided to end the show.

In retrospect, given the weather reports which included severe storm warnings, it should never have begun. The violent winds which accompanied the rainfall knocked out power lines in the Montreal area.

Repercussion Theatre does provide weather updates via telephone at 514-916-PARK. But anyone with a smartphone can get faster updates with an app.

Personally, I’ve already checked the Weather Network and have decided to return for a second try tonight as there doesn’t seem to be any serious threat of another tempest. This means that there should be a review of Harry the King, at last, in the Friday edition of The Gazette.

]]>http://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/theatre/harry-the-king-defeated-by-rain-on-opening-night/feed0pdonnellSpooky action at a distance, Shakespeare, English history: this is your optional homework before Jim Jarmusch film Only Lovers Left Alivehttp://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/movies/spooky-action-at-a-distance-shakespeare-english-history-this-is-your-optional-homework-before-jim-jarmusch-film-only-lovers-left-alive
http://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/movies/spooky-action-at-a-distance-shakespeare-english-history-this-is-your-optional-homework-before-jim-jarmusch-film-only-lovers-left-alive#commentsWed, 23 Apr 2014 09:41:46 +0000http://blogs.montrealgazette.com/?p=247380]]>Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton play husband-and-wife vampires in the Jim Jarmusch film Only Lovers Left Alive, which opens in Montreal on Friday, April 25, 2014. While no preparation is necessary, those who enjoy a little research might like to check out some of these topics.

“Spooky action at a distance,” this sounds so cool when Tom Hiddleston says it, in the role of the morose vampire Adam. And he says it more than once. He’s musing on how one thing, or one being, can affect another, even when they are far apart, without any obvious connection. “Spooky action . . ” is the English translation of Albert Einstein’s dismissive description of the concept of quantum entanglement. The PBS science series NOVA explains spooky action at a distance on this web page.

Einstein wrote in German, though, and used the words “spukhafte Fernwirkung.” On his Forteana Blog, Andrew May questions the accuracy of the translation. Interestingly, among the many books that May has written is one called Paranormal Shakespeare. (Ghosts, witches and sorcery from the Bard!) How about that!

Speaking of the Bard, some people think that the plays attributed to William Shakespeare were not written by him at all. According to the doubters, the “real author” was Sir Francis Bacon, Sir Walter Raleigh, Edmund Spenser, Christopher Marlowe, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, or maybe even Queen Elizabeth. Director Jarmusch is a Marlowe man.

.The BBC points out that the first person to cast doubt on the authorship of the plays did so in jest. “In 1848, a young Lutheran scholar from Pennsylvania named Samuel Mosheim Schmucker, dismayed about the academic trend of using historical and biographical evidence to doubt the existence of Christ, argued that the same approaches could be used to argue that Shakespeare never existed. But he meant it all as a parody.”

Pages later, after examining the various candidates. the article says: “Of course, the dominant view is still that Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare. . .Among literature professors, academics, and established mainstream scholars, it’s not merely the most popular theory, it’s the only theory – not even a theory, really, but a closed question.”“Professor Stanley Wells, Chairman of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, delves into the authorship debate,” on the web site of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

.Robert McCrum, of the Observer, reviews James Shapiro’s book Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? and then talks to assorted actors and directors. Trevor Nunn, for example “compares Shakespeare conspiracy theories to ‘bonkers’ American speculations about the Apollo moonshot, CIA involvement in 9/11 and the landing of aliens at Roswell, Texas.”

Montreal’s own Keir Cutler has signed the Declaration of Reasonable Doubt About the Identity of William Shakespeare (DoubtAboutWill.org/declaration) and written a book – The Shakespeare Authorship Question: A Crackpot’s View.

.
Blink and you’ll miss it, but Oliver Cromwell comes up, too. At least he does in the French subtitles. In English, Hiddleston’s Adam just mutters something about “Parliamentarians,” who killed one of his friends. And King Charles, too.
This is what the BBC says about Oliver Cromwell. The History Learning Site and the History Channel have page on Cromwell, too.

The Orson Welles retrospective continues at Cinémathèque Québécoise with Touch of Evil at 6:30 p.m, and Macbeth, at 8:45 pm. (Macbeth will be shown again on Friday, March 14, 2014, at 6 p.m.) They’re both black-and-white, 35 mm films, in English with French subtitles.

Touch of Evil takes place on both sides of the Mexico-U.S. border. A dark-haired, mustachioed Charlton Heston plays Mexican police detective Mike Vargas; Janet Leigh is his American wife, and Welles plays crooked American police captain Hank Quinlan. Zsa Zsa Gabor and Marlene Dietrich make appearances.
Welles directs and performs in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, giving himself the role of the murderous would-be king.

This is what Michael Scheinfeld says in a TV Guide review: (Welles) envisioned filming Macbeth, with its gloomy moors and horrific murders, as “a perfect cross between Wuthering Heights (1939) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935),” and that is a pretty good description of what he achieved. The only studio in Hollywood that would gamble on Welles’s dream of creating “Shakespeare for the masses” was Republic, the home of Roy Rogers and other B-western stars. To disprove his extravagant reputation, Welles took on the film as a challenge, promising to shoot it in just three weeks and on a budget of $700,000; and he did just that, using spare, movable sets depicting twisted trees, jagged rocks and fog-shrouded cliffs, with a cyclorama background painted with clouds and illuminated by sporadic flashes of lightning. . . the result still may not be the most coherent of Shakespeare adaptations, it’s quite powerful, and the highly stylized and intentionally artificial production design (even a flying bird is mechanical) features some of the most dazzling imagery ever put on film. The noirish lightning by cinematographer John L. Russell Jr. (who later shot Psycho) creates one of the darkest films of all-time and an ominous and otherworldly mood is established immediately with the brilliant pre-credit sequence where the three witches (whose faces are never seen) plunge their hands into a boiling cauldron and pull out a clay figure they shape into a baby Macbeth and place a crown upon its head. The rest of the film is filled with similar examples of Welles’s visual bravado and genius for long takes (including one uninterrupted 10-minute sequence) . .

]]>http://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/movies/orson-welles-in-two-murderous-roles-shakespeares-scheming-macbeth-and-the-crooked-cop-of-touch-of-evil-at-cinematheque-quebecoise/feed0Macbeth pagemontrealgazetteBefore watching Coriolanus, you can read it online or download it from Project Gutenberghttp://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/movies/before-watching-coriolanus-you-can-read-it-online-or-download-it-from-project-gutenberg
http://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/movies/before-watching-coriolanus-you-can-read-it-online-or-download-it-from-project-gutenberg#commentsSat, 22 Feb 2014 10:26:22 +0000http://blogs.montrealgazette.com/?p=243926]]>Thanks to my father and the Book-of-the-Month Club (or something like it) I do own copies of Shakespeare’s plays, so I can read Coriolanus before I watch the filmed play.

]]>http://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/movies/before-watching-coriolanus-you-can-read-it-online-or-download-it-from-project-gutenberg/feed0Coriolanus Shakespeare pages brownmontrealgazetteCoriolanus Shakespeare pair greenSee Tom Hiddleston as Shakespeare's macho Roman general Coriolanus, Saturday afternoon at several Montreal-area cinemashttp://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/movies/see-tom-hiddleston-as-shakespeares-macho-roman-general-coriolanus-saturday-afternoon-at-several-montreal-area-cinemas
http://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/movies/see-tom-hiddleston-as-shakespeares-macho-roman-general-coriolanus-saturday-afternoon-at-several-montreal-area-cinemas#commentsSat, 22 Feb 2014 09:42:51 +0000http://blogs.montrealgazette.com/?p=243917]]>Just a reminder that there will be an encore presentation Shakespeare’s play Coriolanus at the Cineplex Odeon cinemas in Brossard, Kirkland and Cote St. Luc (at the Cavendish Mall) at 12:30 p.m., on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014. There will be a screening at Cineplex Odeon Forum as well, but it is sold out.

Tom Hiddleston has the title role, and the other actors include Deborah Findlay, Hadley Fraser, Birgitte Hjort Sorensen and Mark Gatiss (of Sherlock fame).

Tom Hiddleston, left, and Mark Gatiss at a rehearsal of Coriolanus. Photo by Manuel Harlan

Coriolanus ran from Dec. 6, 2013 to Feb. 13, 2014 at London’s Donmar Warehouse. All performances were sold out. On Jan. 30, the play was broadcast to cinemas in more than 300 cities around the world. Saturday’s presentation is a repeat of that one. It is two hours and 40 minutes long, including an intermission.

The rehearsal footage below includes sword fighting, the famous Hiddleston laugh (Eheheheh . . .) and a scene where he calmly eats a a large salad while a makeup person paints a gruesome wound on his arm.

]]>http://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/movies/see-tom-hiddleston-as-shakespeares-macho-roman-general-coriolanus-saturday-afternoon-at-several-montreal-area-cinemas/feed0CoriolanusmontrealgazetteTom Hiddleston, left, and Mark Gatiss at a rehearsal of Coriolanus. Photo by Manuel HarlanWildside Festival's Iceland Sizzles, American Idiot All Sound and Furyhttp://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/theatre/wildside-festivals-iceland-sizzles-american-idiot-all-sound-and-fury
http://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/theatre/wildside-festivals-iceland-sizzles-american-idiot-all-sound-and-fury#commentsSun, 05 Jan 2014 20:26:02 +0000http://blogs.montrealgazette.com/?p=240540]]>Iceland is hot. We’re talking about the play, not the country. This searing, provocative work which opened at Centaur Theatre’s Wildside Festival on Saturday night (Jan. 4) is a Toronto import, written by Nicolas Billon. Billon just won the 2013 Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama for his Fault Lines trilogy which includes this play. The writing is brilliant and so is Ravi Jain’s auster, precise direction. The three actors deliver riveting performances, especially Kawa Ada, as the sleazy, super-Capitalistic real estate agent. Christine Horne plays complicated notes as the Estonian prostitute, and Claire Calnan is beautifully understated as the uptight Torontonian with a hidden capacity for deadly rage.

Iceland is but one of seven shows at the Wildside Festival, which continues through Jan. 12.

Last week’s big chill failed to keep people away from this increasingly popular event at Centaur Theatre. The house was packed for both shows which opened on Friday night and attendance was steady throughout the weekend, proving there’s a definite niche in the Montreal market for innovative hour-long shows with cheap ticket prices. ($15, or less)

Besides Iceland, Saturday’s offerings included Talk, Mackerel and V-Cards – which I had to miss in order to take in the Green Day musical, American Idiot at Place des Arts.

I had heard about Talk, Mackerel during the 2013 Montreal Fringe Festival but didn’t see it then. It’s a mini-musical, written, directed and performed by Sarah Segal-Lazar, along with some of her friends. Segal-Lazar is an engaging performer and the musical side of this whimsical show is enjoyable. But there isn’t much of a play to hang it on. Reverting to childhood and adopting a maritime accent to tell a series of charming anecdotes within the context of a birthday party is not enough.

What to say about American Idiot at Place des Arts? It’s loud and flashy with sophisticated use of lighting and projections. The singers are all talented and several of them knew how to handle a guitar. But this is a jukebox musical, based on a particular Green Day album, meant to continue the legacy of a band no longer in its prime. For Green Day fans, it was, no doubt, a treat. But there wasn’t much of a narrative and the lyrics tended to get lost in the guitar licks.

Three suburban boys try to find their way in life. One stays home with a pregnant girlfriend, another gets into heavy drugs, a third joins the army. Their spoiled brat angst failed to move me. Instead my heart went out to those who had paid $50 to $85 dollars a ticket in order to accompany a friend who was still in love with the band. The majority of the spectators, however, appeared to be Green Day fans thrilled to hear some of their favorite songs within a musical theatre context.

As I watched this show, a line from Shakespeare’s Macbeth kept running through my mind: “A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” It seemed to fit the occasion.

Back to the Wildside now. This afternoon (Sunday, Jan. 5) , I’ll be seeing Big Shot at 4;30 p.m. Iceland returns at 7 p.m. And Little Orange Man has the 9 p.m. slot.